Friday, August 01, 2008

Garlic Soup in the Kitchen

The request this week was for a soup recipe. Tomato soup is being made in a lot of kitchens across the country because it's simple and inexpensive. However, three e-mails came in asking if I knew a simple recipe that was also inexpensive

You need a medium or large pan. In the pan, you will heat the olive oil over a medium setting on the stove. You will then add the bread cubes (or croutons) and brown them (if using croutons, you'll just be warming them). Mince garlic and add to the skillet. Saute the garlic and bread/croutons for three minutes. Remove about three-quarters of the bread/croutons and let cool on a plate. To the pan, add paprika, cayenne and the broth. You can use chicken broth, you can use beef broth, you can use vegetable broth. I think the recipe tastes best with 1/2 chicken and 1/2 broth. Bring the contents of the pan to a quick boil (turn the heat to the highest setting). Once the soup boils, turn off the burner and move pan to a cool burner. Add the eggs (slightly beaten means you crack them into a bowl and then whisk around the yolks and whites quickly -- this is what you add). After you add the eggs, quickly add the parsley, then the pepper and salt while stirring. Cover the pan for five minutes. Remember the croutons you set aside? Add afew to each empty bowl. Ladel soup into the bowl and top with a few croutons for each bowl.

That is a very simple soup. If you're not big on garlic, try it once and see. This isn't a garlicy-tasting soup.

By trying it early, if you like it, you can introduce it as a regular staple for dinners. And you'll be ready with something warm when the heat vanishes with summer.

The New York Times had two interesting stories on the economy this week. One was on the shift in the labor force (by employers) of full-time workers to part-time. As people struggle to make ends meet, a reduction in hours (with no additional pay increase) is of no help to anyone but the bosses. The hope is that when the economy lifts again (if it does), employers will already have employees to move to full time and won't have to bother with mass hirings. It's always about what benefits the employers. The second story was pretty frightening. All week, I was talking to friends and feeling like I was being alarmist. Then I spoke with C.I. on the phone and was told about a story I missed. Bennigans is no more, foreclosed, bankrupted, whatever. And other restaurant chains were suffering and teetering. Eating out is an expendable. People are eating out less. The third story was on the hotel industry. At the start of the decade, business was good so many hotels planned expansions and many new hotels were being built. We are not in 'good' times and the occupancy rate is very poor.

When I read the second story, I was alarmed. C.I.'s the only one who shared that alarm and applied the hotel story. As C.I. said, "Well we're living here in Allentown." In reference to the Billy Joel song "Allentown."

Well we're living here in AllentownAnd they're closing all the factories downOut in Bethlehem they're killing timeFilling out formsStanding in lineWell our fathers fought the Second World WarSpent their weekends on the Jersey ShoreMet our mothers in the USOAsked them to danceDanced with them slowAnd we're living here in AllentownBut the restlessness was handed downAnd it's getting very hard to stayWell we're waiting here in AllentownFor the Pennsylvania we never foundFor the promises our teachers gaveIf we worked hardIf we behavedSo the graduations hang on the wallBut they never really helped us at allNo they never taught us what was realIron and cokeAnd chromium steelAnd we're waiting here in AllentownBut they've taken all the coal from the groundAnd the union people crawled away

The song continues. I had forgotten about the song, honestly. And we have that on vinyl. I'm sure, knowing my husband, we have Billy Joel on CDs -- best ofs, boxed sets.

But when C.I. pulled that as a reference, it illustrated it for me perfectly, why I was so alarmed. Billy Joel wrote that song during the Reagan years and we were seeing towns swallowed up. Some really did not come back.

Where ever you live, imagine you live in a small city and there is one Bennigans and one hotel. The rising price of gas and the lousy economy means people are cutting back. The Bennigans is now no more. Travel is down so hotel occupancy is down.

The people working at Bennigans -- the wait staff, the bartenders, the hostesses, the managers are now all out of work. With occupancy down in hotels, some people ar being laid off. Or maybe full time workers are 'gifted' with part-time hours. That's housekeepers, janitors, clerks . . . Probably everyone but management.

That's bad for your city. That alone is bad for your city.

However, it doesn't end there. Those people who are out of work or on reduced hours spend less because they have less to spend. That effects your grocery store, it effects everything. If you lose your Bennigans, you lose some or all of your local traffic from the areas immediately surrounding your city. The areas further away aren't coming in. As a result, other businesses can close.

As C.I. and Ava have been pointing out repeatedly for the last nearly four years, it's a Bully Boy economy and now the people are really starting to feel that. But it's only going to get worse. You've got clothing store chains closing. These are not isolated closings. It goes to the systems that support and fuel the economy.

Who is addressing this on the campaign trail? I'm not seeing anyone but Ralph Nader. Barack's pretty words aren't going to put food on the table or money in the bank.

I'm voting for Ralph. I do believe he will fix the country. I am not sure how many people will be voting for him but I know I will. (And my family.) But it really drives home how much the 'leadership' in the Democratic Party (and all the useless people like Katrina vanden Heuvel) have failed the people. Hillary Clinton is a nuts and bolts, roll up the sleeves and get to work candidate. With her as the nominee, we would have someone working for us. We would have had someone who would have been a work horse. Barack tires on the campaign trail and starts whining about his waffles. He's had two vacations already since January and is planning another in August. Sound familiar? I believe his twin-brother is currently in the White House.

We needed someone who could lead and who could work. Barack cannot do either of those things. The Democrats are putting up a motivational speaker who should be confined to taping late-night infomercials. The worker was run off. She wasn't good enough for leadership even though she was the choice of the people.

I don't think Barack can get elected. I could be wrong, but I don't think he can.

If he loses, we need to remember all the people who destroyed the candidate with experience and a willingness to work.

Starting with war resistance, Jan Slakov (BCLocalNews) proposed ways to prepare for peace this week and the second step was: "Welcome war resisters: Former U.S. President John F. Kennedy once said: 'War will exist until that distant day when the CO [conscientious objector] enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.' A majority of Canadian MPs understand this, and voted on June 3 to allow U.S. soldiers who object to the 'war on terror' on conscientious grounds to stay in Canada. However, the Conservative government is ignoring the will of these deserters to be deported to face punishment in the U.S." The Conservative government and conservative shills like Rondi Adamson who offers a string of lies in the Christian Science Monitor. In fact, Rondi's piece should be titled "No Lie Left Untold." Rondi admits Canada took in "draft dodgers" during Vietnam but forgets to note they also took in deserters. Rondi forgets to note the popular (or Parliament) support in Canada for war resisters. From the July 1st snapshot: "The Angus Reid Poll finds: 'A majority of Canadians would agree with the decision to let American military deserters stay in Canada as permanent residents, a new Angus Reid Strategies survey reveals. . . In the online survey of a representative national sample, three-in-five Canadians (64%) say they would agree to give these U.S. soldiers the opportunity to remain in Canada as permanent residents. Quebec (70%) houses the highest proportion of respondents who agree with the motion, while Alberta (52%) has the fewest supporters. A gender breakdown reveals that while both males and females would agree to let U.S. military deserters remain in Canada, females are much more sympathetic (69% versus 57%)'." And Rondi is apparently confessing that Canadians spat on US soldiers during Vietnam. That LIE has long been disproven in the US but apparently, Rondi wants us to believe it happened in Canada.

This spending spree takes place as Selcan Hacaoglu (AP) reports on sewage treatment plant in Bahgdad that ("nearly three years later") is still nothing but a shell: "Raw sewage is still flowing freely through giant pipes into the Tigris River, ending up in some of the capital's drinking water. And those pipes are hardly the only source of contamination. Many residents only have to sniff the tap water to know something is not right. . . . Two-thirds of the raw sewage produced in the capital flows untreated into rivers and waterways, Stuart Bowen, special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, said in his quarterly report released Wednesday."

Tensions continue to flare over Kirkuk. The October provincial elections are thought to be pushed back (at least) over the efforts in the Parliament to include aspects (force through) to do with Kirkuk. That led to a mass walk out of Kurdish Parliamentarians last month. A special session will be held Sunday to attempt to address the issue of provincial elections. Now Kurdish leaders in Kirkuk (an ethnically diverse, oil-rich city that the Kurdish region wants to absorb) are stating that it will become part of Kurdistan. DPA notes that the demand came on Friday as did an attempted assassination via bombing of Kirkuk's police chief Jamal Taher. KHalid al-Ansary (Reuters) notes that the puppet government is Baghdad is insisting on calm and order. Not only is that not working, neighbors are noticing. Alsumaria reports, "Kirkuk issue takes the upper hand in Iraq's politics while Turkey has showed interest in the issue after Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki received a phone call from Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan who expressed his concern over Kurds demand to join Kirkuk to Kurdistan."

Meanwhile Sabrina Tavernise and Steven Lee Myers (New York Times) reported this morning, "The American military disclosed on Thursday that soldiers had killed three unarmed people during an operation northwest of Samarra on Wednesday, and injured a fourth. Ali Salih Jubarah, a spokesman for Salahuddin Province, the region where the killings occurred, said that Dahia Hussein and her two sons, Ali Jassim and Muhammad Jassim, all civilians, were killed during a raid on a house. He identified the injured person as Ms. Hussein's daughter, Sabeiha Jassim."

In some of today's reported violence . . .

Bombings?

Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad car bombing that claimed 1 life and left two people wounded and a Kirkuk roadside bombing that claimed the lives of 3 Iraqi soldiers and left a fourth wounded. AP reports, "Two suicide bombers detonated their explosive vests Friday wounding three Iraqi soldiers north of Baghdad during a raid".

Scott Haws: Yeah, he's trying to get the word out with a limited budget and minimal support but at a news conference this morning, he was not afraid to take on the big guys. Richard Piatt was there and joins us with more. Rich?

Richard Piatt: Well, as you know Scott, Ralph Nader has been taking on the big guys for forty years now, starting with General Motors in the 1960s, you'll recall he successfully got a car called the Corvair pulled off the market. These days, in his seventies, he is just as entergetic. And he's diligent about running for president this time again. Nader registered as an official presidential candidate in Utah at the lieutenant governor's office this morning. He called his rivials John McCain and Barack Obama "corporate candidates." He appeared with former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson at a news conference this morning. Nader says the average American tax payer is not being served by the status quo. Unfair tax policies, inadequate health care options and gridlock in Congress are among the problems he sees. He says voters need a more diverse campaign. But he points out that he is being excluded from most of the major presidential debates, furthering what he calls a "corporate candidate quagmire."

Ralph Nader: The two parties have spoiled our elections. They've spoiled our government. They've spoiled our political system. And they've turned our government over to big businness that's about the worst constitutional crime you can imagine.

Richard Piatt: Nader has been labeled a spoiler in the past, depriving other candidates, like John Kerry, of votes by defusing the support. But according to a Dan Jones poll in May here in Utah, Nader barely registers in Utah this year. The poll showed Nader with only 2 percent of the 604 statewide voters at that time in May. Even so, he refuses to see himself as a spoiler or even a bad candidate. Instead, he says he's the only candidate who . . . is a real alternative. Nader is scheduled to appear next in Davis, Calif., on Saturday for a rally with his running mate Matt Gonzalez. Back to you.

We'll return to the topic of Nader shortly but expanding the focus to other contenders includes noting a surprise failure to stick to the attack plan on John McCain by the Democratic Party. Last week David Brancaccio (NOW on PBS) interviewed former Democratic presidential hopeful (and 2004 Democratic vice-presidential candidate) John Edwards. From the exchange:

BRANCACCIO: Have you had occasion to talk to the candidates left standing about your poverty proposals?EDWARDS: Yes, yes I have. Well, before I got out of the race, I talked to Obama and Clinton at the time about some very specific things, which for now I'll keep private. But I got very specific commitments from them about making poverty central to their campaign, making it central to their presidency. And some very specific substantive ideas behind that. I've also spoken to McCain. It's a little harder with him.BRANCACCIO: But you've talked to McCain about these poverty issues.EDWARDS: I have I have. I know John McCain very well. Served with him. Traveled around the world with him. It's a little tough because I'm supporting his opponent in the presidential race and doing it vigorously. (some laughs) But having said that, while he doesn't agree with a lot of the policy issues that I'm behind, he's been receptive to the concept that this is something we have to do something about.

John McCain is the presumed GOP presidential nominee. McCain is currently in the news for his refusal to allow Barack to play the race card. Before we get to that, McCain spoke this week in Nevada and Susan (Random Thoughts) attended and has posted video of the event at her site. This week, Barack was speaking on his favorite topic . . . himself. As usual Vanity Sux couldn't shut up about how great he thinks he is. As usual he tried to link McCain to the current White House occupant because, when you have no record to run on, you use the same desperate tactics that the illegal war was sold on (false links). So Barack declared that McCain and Bully Boy were going to say of Barack (because Barack wants the WHOLE WORLD talking about him), "he doesn't look like all those other presidents on the dollars bills." First off, Barack IS NOT PRESIDENT. "HE DOESN'T LOOK LIKE ALL THOSE OTHER PRESIDENTS ON THE DOLLAR BILLS"? Barack, you ARE NOT president. Joseph (Cannonfire) explains, "McCain never said anything about Obama's patriotism or his name, and he certainly never said anything about race. Yet the Obots actually have defended this rhetoric. They applaud their candidate for running against a hallucinated line of attack." Marcia weighed in, "Barack has played the race card non-stop throughout his run. As an African-American, I know what the bi-racial blunder's doing, he's trying to egg up support from the African-American community. He's trying to turn us into his street team. His 'okey doke' and all of that other bull was an attempt back in the primaries. It is the only card he has left to play and it's not going to play in a general election." Silly Barack declared today, "There was nobody there who thought at all that I was trying to inject race in this" because, apparently, none of our presidents have had two ears, two eyes, one mouth and one nose. Is that what Barack's trying to say? Or was he trying to draw attention -- yet again -- to his 'divine' figure? is he running to become the bulimic president? Barack's Cult has trouble with facts so that probably sailed over them. Yesterday Martha and Rebecca both called out the factually challenged Barack groupie at VIBE.

Tonight (in most markets) on PBS, Bill Moyers Journal continues exploring Capitol Crime with an increased focus on the Abramoff Congressional-lobbyist scandals. NOW on PBS examines the case of Ted Stevens, US Senator from Alaska now under indictment. And on Washington Week, Gwen and the gas bags chews up this week's factoids and the scenery. Guest stars include: Time's Karen Tumulty and National Journal's James Barnes.

Good morning.Here's something you can do right now.Donate six dollars.To Nader/Gonzalez.Why?Because we're celebrating.For two reasons.Number one reason to celebrate: CNN poll from two days ago---Ralph Nader at six percent.After being totally blocked out from the mainstream media for months.(This is the fourth major poll putting us at five percent and above. Remember, John Anderson and Ross Perot both got into Presidential debates because they met the then League of Women Voters' threshold of five percent in a number of polls.)And that's quite remarkable.Six percent.With little to no national news coverage.Number two reason to celebrate: In 2004, we were on only 34 state ballots.Now, in 2008, thanks to your help, we're heading toward 45 states.For example, in 2004, we were not on in Illinois, Pennsylvania, Hawaii, Arizona, and Massachusetts.But we will be on these states in 2008.Today, for example, we will turn in more than 53,000 signatures in Pennsylvania. (25,000 valid required.)So, yes, we are moving on up.We'll take the six percent in the polls.And we'd gladly take six percent national coverage from the mainstream media -- to match our most recent poll number.But no.To the mainstream corporate media, we're untouchable.Why?Because we represent what the majority of Americans want?Because we favor single payer health insurance?And Obama and McCain oppose it?Because we would quickly end the corporate and military occupation of Iraq?And Obama and McCain wouldn't?Because we stand for a shift of the power away from the corporations and back into the hands of the American people?Because we would cut the bloated, wasteful military budget?Yes, that's why.Because the corporate media is just doing its job.Protecting corporate power.And we are doing ours.Representing the majority of the American people.So, they are doing what they must do.And we are doing what we must do.So, drop a six spot here now.And support the campaign that represents the American people.Against the corporate masters.And help us reach our new fundraising goal -- $100,000 by August 10.Thanks to your generous contributions so far, we're a third of the way home.Let's keep moving on up.Both to our goal of $100,000 by August 10.And let's drive our numbers in the polls to seven, eight, nine and ten points and beyond.So that even the corporate media will have to sit up and take notice.Together, we are making a difference.Onward